Thursday, March 19, 2015

Here it is, Cellmates. The second round of Horror Business Episodes for your streaming and downloading pleasure. Horror Business and its sister show, Missing Link Mixtape, can be heard on alternating Monday nights at 10pm only on The FDTC Network.

Episode 6: Ask SOCWhat do you do when a guest bails on you? You make the mistake of
asking your facebook friends for questions, that's what. We end up
talking about my horror history, which horror starlets I want to do
dirty things to, vampire fights, my former life of crime, ectoplasm as
lube, my theories on the genre, and a ridiculous amount of other stuff.

Episode 8: The Netherspawn With Halloween coming up and haunted attraction season in full swing, I
went to the actors who stalk the halls of Netherworld Haunted House in
Atlanta (my haunt home since 1999) for their best stories about scaring
someone shitless. Time for the monsters to speak

Episode 9: Making The Video The Son of Celluloid and Brad Slaton co-directed a music video for The
Casket Creatures song "Zombie Werewolves From Outer Space." Go check it
out on youtube. Then listen to this roundtable discussion between
Nathan, Brad, and the band about the craziness that went into creating
the video.

We heard from the actors at one of the largest haunts
in the nation, now let's visit the other end of the haunt spectrum.
Eric and Nikki Cotto run a haunt out of their home to raise money for
charity. Hear the story of a family who turns their home into a house
of horrors each year to help the community and for the sheer love of
fear. Also, Brad Slaton drops by to chat Starry Eyes and See No Evil 2.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Here at SOC, we're all about independent everything; independent horror, independent music, independent wrestling, independent variables, independent women, independent clauses, whatever. So, of course, I'm all about Record Store Day. If you don't know what I'm talking about...well, first of all, shame on you. Second, it's a day (specifically the third Saturday of April each year) when bands release special edition vinyls and indie record stores everywhere host events to celebrate the role of the record store. Part of me thinks that maybe, if we had done something like this, maybe we could have saved the video store. Anyway, there are always some cool horror related items every year. In the past these have included things like a 7" with the Misfits version of skulls on the A side and Evan Dando's cover on side B, a glow in the dark Ghostbusters single, a limited to 666 Dracula 1972 / Satanic Rites of Dracula soundtrack, and a truly bad ass Last House on the Left Soundtrack picture disk that I tried like hell to get my hands on. There are hundreds of unique releases of all genres specifically for the event, but I'm gonna focus on the horror tinged ones. Now not every store will get them all, some have very limited print runs, and some will ONLY be available on Record Store Day. So unless you wanna pay a fortune for them on ebay later, I'd suggest that you get there early, grease the right palms, plan strategically, or whatever you have to do to get the ones you want. You can visit www.recordstoreday.com to find participating stores near you and see a full listing of all of the 2015 RSD releases.

There will be a digitally remastered re-release of the 1989 Rocky Horror Picture Show "Time Warp EP"featuring the original, extended, remixed, and karaoke versions of the song.

GWAR, featuring everyone's favorite Scumdog from Adam Greene's closet Oderus Urungus (RIP) will be releasing a remastered vinyl pressing of their best album (in my humble but always accurate opinion) America Must Be Destroyed. It comes with an RSD Exclusivity Certificate and Gor-Gor Pop Up Album Art.

We all know that metal and horror go hand in hand, and the biggest metal release this year is When The Stillness Stops, the first track off of Slayer's upcoming new album. This cool ass picture disc single will also feature a live version of Black Magic recorded at Wacken in 2014.

Leatherface have nothing to do with TCM except the name, but they're a damn good punk band. They'll be releasing a 3 disc box set entitled Razor Blades And Aspirin:1990-1993.

One of the more bizarrereleases this year that I honestly don't know much about is Nightsatan and the Loops of Doom by Nightsatan. They're a band from Finland who apparently made a short film and are releasing the soundtrack on green vinyl with a region free DVD of the film included. This is one of the more limited releases this year, so be on the lookout. Here's the trailer...

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Is it possible to tell a psychological horror tale through
the medium of extreme bodily violence?
Can horror told on a primarily physical level still be cerebral? Can it engage your brain while kicking you
square in the junk? Felipe Eluti’s film
Visceral: Between the Ropes of Madness (out 3/24 from Unearthed Films) answers
with an emphatic “YES!” It’s an ultraviolent
mood piece gruesome enough to satisfy gorehounds but smart enough to deliver an
intriguing character study in a torture flick’s clothing.

Synopsis: A boxer loses the biggest fight of his life. He
slowly finds himself, giving up his dream and finds that life is not worth
living. At least, those lives around him are not worthy of life. He steps
through and unleashes an entity that torments him and guile's him to do
unspeakable acts of torture and murder. As body counts rise and lives are
diminished, will he have any hope? Any way to fight back to what he once was?

Visceral is not told as a straight forward narrative. In fact, the story is rather thin by
conventional standards. It has very
little dialogue and the vast majority of all character interaction takes place
in torture/murder/rape settings. This is
the story of one man’s descent into a mental hell. If told in a linear form, this probably
wouldn’t have been enough to carry us through the film’s fairly short runtime
(116 minutes including 12 minutes of credits).
What Eluti brilliantly does is tell that story in three different
timelines, switching between them jarringly and without warning yet anything
but randomly. Telling the story in this
way enables him to reveal things in an order that enables them to have maximum
impact. It’s a technique that many
movies have tried, almost all of them less effectively than Visceral.

I fear that one of the film’s biggest strengths may also be
what some will see as its greatest flaw.
I love it when a film doesn’t hold the viewer’s hand and instead gives
them credit for being smart enough to figure out a difficult narrative style. There is only one visual cue to alert the
viewer that we have switched to a different point in the story. It’s not apparent at first. It may even be a little bit confusing until
you figure it out. Once you do, however,
things start to fall into place and the progression makes sense. A less astute viewer might be tempted to say
that the film is jumbled and nonsensical.
I hate to say “if you didn’t like it, you didn’t get it.” That just smacks of pretentious film school
snobbery. I think this flick may,
however, be a case where that statement rings true.

If everything I’ve said so far makes Visceral sound a little
too arthouse for your sadistic tastes, put that thought out of your sick little
head right now. Those looking to satisfy
their cinematic bloodlust will find everything they need. This is not a flick for the weak of heart or
stomach. I’ve seen a lot of violent
flicks in the last few years, but very few where said violence is this
raw. The camera remains very fluid and
sometimes shakes a little too much for my liking, but it never flinches or cuts
away from the brutality. The gore looks
fantastic, and the lack of dialogue from the main character adds a palpable
creep factor. While pervasive, the violence never goes over
the top in the sense of being unrealistic.
Oh, no. It feels all too real.

That reality is aided by an aspect of filmmaking that is
often overlooked – sound design. The
movie’s score (more of a dark industrial soundscape than a score actually) sets
the mood perfectly, but the sound effects are where it really shines. Each fist lands with a sickening thud that
makes the impact of flesh on flesh resonate through your core. The beautiful squishing and gurgling sounds
of blood and entrails are perfect. I
would also be remiss if I didn’t mention some really good shibari-style rope
work. Those perverts out there of the
BDSM persuasion (like a certain horror blogger) will particularly enjoy this
added touch.

Visceral is an apt name for this film. You feel it in your guts every bit as much as
your brain. It’s a movie that plays from
multiple angles. Some will find a top notch
gore flick. Some will find a harrowing
peek into the abyss of insanity. Hell,
some may come away having seen a fucked up PSA about a hot topic in the world
of sports; head trauma. Whatever
perspective you choose to view it from, this is a film that lays bare its
tortured soul for you to touch if you dare.
If you go into it just as open, you’ll be rewarded
with a remarkable viewing experience that is at the same time mindraping and, well…
Visceral. I haven’t seen a lot of
Chilean horror, but after this and Hidden in the Woods, we may be looking at a
new hotbed of genre goodness. Nathan
says check it out.